


Making Gestures

by idiotbrothers



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Banter, Eventual Fluff, M/M, POV Danny, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 16:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5212382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idiotbrothers/pseuds/idiotbrothers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arin makes a habit out of dressing himself up. Something about it piques Dan's interest in a way that's totally foreign to him, and...well, you know what they say about the river in Egypt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making Gestures

**Author's Note:**

> Title refers to the Pack A.D. song of the same name.

"Are you wearing eyeliner?"

"Oh yeah, I guess I am. Filmed a thing earlier."

"A thing?"

"With Suzy. Y'know."

"Man, she really likes putting makeup on you, huh."

"Yup. She can't get enough of it."

* * *

The two of them were having a pretty involved conversation about the choreography for NSP's upcoming _6969_ music video, but Dan found his attention lagging throughout it, because something about the way Arin looked kept distracting him. Without thinking, Dan brought his thumb to Arin's mouth and rubbed it across a corner of his bottom lip. The sheen now smudged across his thumb confirmed his suspicions. Glancing back up, he saw that Arin was staring at him, an incredulous slant to his eyebrows. "Oh, sorry!" Dan exclaimed, belatedly embarrassed. "I just-- _lip gloss_?" Arin gave a little huff. "You could've asked, instead of getting your gross hand all up in my face." Dan shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry," he repeated. "Yeah, yeah. I, uh...forgot that I still had this on. The lip gloss, I mean." Dan blinked. "Suzy again?"

Arin made a sort of affirmative noise, tucking his bangs behind his left ear. When he shifted, the gloss on his mouth subtly caught the light, drawing Dan's eye once more. His lips looked super soft. Kissable, even. Wait...what? Dan inwardly shook his head at himself, suppressing the urge to laugh. _Him_ , kissing _Arin_. Yeah fucking right.

"Something on your mind, Grandpa Joe?" Dan snapped back to the present, throwing Arin an insulted glare. "Do you have to rub it in all the time? I get it, you're a _sprightly youth_ and I'm a meme-illiterate bag of bones." Arin grinned at him. "If you stopped spacing out every two seconds like my great uncle does, I'd stop making fun of your age."

" _Would_ you, though?"

"Probably not."

_Kissable, my ass._

* * *

"What, no makeup today?"

Arin squinted at Dan like he was trying to tell if he was passing judgment about him. Which he totally wasn't! He was honestly curious, because over the past month Arin had started coming to work with something on his face more often than not. "Nope," Arin finally answered. "For once, my dashing good looks aren't needed for a YouTube gimmick." "Uh-huh." Dan had figured out a little while ago that there was no way Arin was making appearances in that many of Suzy's videos. Plus, he'd asked Suzy outright and she'd affirmed his detective hunch. "Kind of a shame," Dan said pointedly, "That gunk always looks good on you." Arin gave him another squinty-eyed stare. Dan could tell that he was convinced he was being mocked.

"Really _accentuates_ your general, uh..." Dan waved a hand vaguely in the direction of Arin's face, making him raise an unimpressed eyebrow. "Thanks?"

"Mmhm. Let's get back to work, baby girl."

Literally every time Dan uttered that nickname, Arin got this crooked, almost pained half-smile, like he wanted to punch Dan in the face, but in a good-natured way. Dan fucking loved it, for reasons that may or may not have been very slightly dubious. He didn't think about it too hard, to be honest.

* * *

"So I'm talking to this dude about _Thracia 776_ , right," Arin was saying, waving his plastic fork around to punctuate certain phrases every so often, "And he's all, 'you're full of shit; the fatigue system is like, the weakest part of the game next to its plot development', so of course I'm sitting there trying to explain why it totally fuckin' _isn't_. I mean, comparing the character stats in this game to those in FESK--that's _Genealogy of the Holy War_ , by the way--shows that the devs wanted to make it so that players would actually have some incentive to use as many characters as possible, which is only one of the reasons why its gameplay is the best of the whole franchise. You can wax poetic about fucking Gaiden chapters and fog of war all you want, but I'm just saying..."

Dan tuned out the rest of Arin's rant, because for one, he didn't know a damn thing about Fire Emblem, and for another, it was more entertaining to watch the piece of lettuce speared on Arin's fork dance around with every enthusiastic movement of his arm. Or, y'know, to ogle Arin's face while he was distracted. Dan had been catching himself doing that quite a bit lately. It was the eyeshadow, man! It made his eyes look ginormous!

"...Dan, are you even listening to me?"

"I so am. Eat your bland, unsatisfying lettuce." Arin propped his chin on his fist, gazing morosely into his plate of greens. "This diet is gonna kill me. There's only so many ways you can trick yourself into getting excited about a salad recipe." Dan swiped his finger across the rim of his coffee cup. "I still don't know why you decided you needed to diet in the first place. You look fine."

"Oh, I look _fine_ , do I," Arin said, his tone striking a balance between mock-flirtatious and irritated. They'd had this exact conversation more than once. "You look great," Dan asserted, nothing but sincere. Arin averted his eyes from Dan's, shoveling lettuce into his mouth sort of abruptly. "That's sweet and all, but you're a goddamn liar." "Hmm. Would a liar tell you that if you spit any more salad debris onto this table, Suzy's gonna kick your ass?" Arin swallowed his hastily chewed mouthful, blinking down at the spittle that had accrued to the right of his plate. "Oops."

"Say it, don't spray it. The golden rule, motherfucker."

"I'll thank you not to tarnish the timeless wisdom of _The one with the gold makes all the rules_."  
  
"Shut up and eat your lettuce." Arin frowned at him, resentfully nibbling on another bite. "Aw, don't look so bummed out about it. Do you want a piece of my sandwich?"

"It's _grilled cheese_ , Daniel."

"Psh, it's white cheddar on whole wheat. It's got spinach leaves in it." He put a sing-song lilt in his voice for that last bit, as if it were a deal-breaker. Arin turned his scowl on the offending sandwich. "What if I regurgitate it into your mouth like a mama bird? Less calories that way." Arin gave a surprised laugh, wrinkling his nose. "What the fuck?"

"Ooh boy, imagine getting to taste this shit after my stomach juices have had their way with it."

"Ew, stop!" Dan grinned brightly at him, relishing the look of simultaneous disgust and amusement on Arin's face. He forced a burp and blew it in Arin's direction, saying, "There's a little sneak preview for you."

"Or better yet," Arin said, reaching his hand over the table and hooking a finger in Dan's collar, "I could..." He trailed off, leaning his head forward, and Dan automatically met him halfway without even realizing what he was doing, not until Arin's mouth was suddenly pressed against his own. Dan felt like someone had stuck his finger in a power plug. Arin drew back mere seconds after he'd nudged their faces together, running his tongue over his lips. "Just tastes like salt," he observed, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Dan licked his own lips, which now tasted faintly of Arin's cherry-flavored lip gloss. Something about that made his limbs feel all boneless.

"I'm not sure if spinach is the best thing to stick in a grilled cheese. I'm partial to avocado, myself. With like, a big old smear of Sriracha sauce." Dan shifted in his seat, his gaze laser-focused on Arin's mouth. His heartbeat had begun to escalate steadily, and he subtly pushed a hand against his chest. _Shut the fuck up, it's just Arin_.

Arin, who apparently had really soft lips.

 _Arin_ , who thought bowel movements made a good conversation starter, who spent a significant percentage of their time together farting and belching and asking Dan if he wanted to see his weird new scab up close, because holy fuck had it gotten ugly.

Dan's eyes slid from Arin's mouth to the rest of him, his breath puffing out in a short, relieved burst. "Are you kidding me, Arin? Sriracha and cheese? That's _nasty_."

* * *

Dan leaned into Arin's side on the couch, sighing sleepily. His hair smelled really good, like citrus and flowers. Suzy's shampoo. "You alright there, Dan?" Dan nodded against his shoulder, his eyes slipping shut. "Just kinda sleep-deprived."

"When are you not?" Arin's hand found its way up to Dan's hair, rifling through his curls briefly. "Y'wanna take a break?" Dan yawned. "That'd be nice." His eyes fluttered open again as Arin carefully dislodged himself from the couch and went to turn off the capture. The longish black skirt he wore moved almost hypnotically around his legs as he did so. "Where's my fucking pen?" Arin muttered to himself for like the fiftieth time that night, bending down to grope under the desk. The hem of his hoodie rode up over his ass, giving Dan an unobstructed view of how tightly the fabric of his skirt clung when he was hunched over like that. Christ.

"You trying to give me a show, dude?" Arin turned his head to shoot him a confused glance. "Huh?"

"That dress you're wearing doesn't leave much to the imagination." Arin straightened, tugging at the end of his hoodie. "Sorry," he said. Dan immediately noticed that his cheeks had reddened a bit. He smiled, endeared somehow. Everything about Arin was kind of endearing. "C'mere." Arin shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, depositing himself back onto the couch next to Dan. They were sitting close enough together that Dan could feel the heat coming off his flushed skin. "I need to mark our time on the sheet," Arin said quietly, ducking his head when Dan wrapped an arm around his shoulders, his nose brushing against Arin's soft curtain of hair. He'd been growing it out, and it was almost past his shoulders now, longer than Dan had ever seen it.

"Later," Dan murmured, closing his eyes once more. "You're like a furnace. What's got you all hot n' bothered?" Arin fidgeted silently. "You haven't...said anything," he hazarded. "About what?" Dan asked, breathing the question into the side of Arin's neck, feeling his resultant shiver. "About all the, um. The makeup, and the skirts and shit. It's weird, right? I keep waiting for you to confront me about it, but you never do." Dan kept his eyes shut as he thought about how to best respond. "I mean, it isn't really any of my business. If you like decking yourself out--and I'm guessing you do--then why the hell not?" Arin didn't speak for what felt like several long minutes, making Dan start to worry that he'd offended him.

Finally, he broke the silence by huffing out a laugh. "That simple, huh?" Dan cracked an eyelid and peeked at Arin, gauging his facial expression. He looked...disappointed. Dan opened his eyes all the way, meeting Arin's gaze. "Shouldn't it be?" Arin looked down, scratching at his beard. His nails were painted an eggshell blue, nice and neat as if Suzy had done them for him. "I dunno, I just...thought I'd get a different reaction." Dan considered that, staring at Arin wordlessly for half a minute. "Maybe I'd have been more unsettled if it didn't suit you so well." Arin glanced back up at him, his eyes widening. "You don't have to butter me up, dude, I know I look like a mess." Dan legitimately boggled at that. "The hell you do! You look..." The next word of his sentence got stuck in his throat, his face heating preemptively. Arin didn't seem to notice, looking resigned, as if he thought Dan was belittling him. Fuck that noise.

"Okay, listen. You're cute enough as it is, and when you add all this...accessorizing you've been doing on top of that? God, you're..." Dan stopped himself again, because Jesus, this was embarrassing to say out loud. Arin was gazing at him with this sort of conflicted smile on his face. He leaned in so that he was an inch closer, his big shoulder warm against Dan's. "You think I'm cute?" Dan wouldn't be surprised if his cheeks were literally aflame right now. He stammered. "I-I mean...you're, like, not...so bad. Objectively speaking." Arin grinned widely. "Wow. That's high praise, bro." Dan buried his face in his hands, groaning. "Shut up."

Arin's palms made contact with the backs of Dan's own, pulling them away so that they were looking at each other again. "Um," Arin said, shifting his weight nervously, though he was still smiling. "Thanks. It, uh. It actually means a lot." Dan shook his head. "Don't worry about it. In fact, feel free to wipe it from your memory." Arin laughed. He hadn't let go of Dan's hands yet. "We've got a couple more episodes to record," he noted, "But I've gotta take a dump first. You still need to nap?" Dan took stock of his unsteady heartbeat, his clammy palms. "Nope, the urge passed."

"Okay. I'll be back in a few." Before he got up to leave, Arin tilted his head ever-so-slightly forward and brushed his mouth against Dan's jaw. "Don't go anywhere," he said nonchalantly, not looking at Dan in his haste to exit the room. Dan's heart felt like it had taken a direct, brass-knuckled punch. He resolutely avoided dwelling on why.

* * *

It was months later that Dan was given another reason to fortify the mental block keeping his feelings walled in.

He was out with Arin, Suzy, and Barry, and they'd just left the restaurant they'd grabbed dinner in, chatting companionably as they walked out to Arin's car. Arin and Suzy were walking hand-in-hand, and as Arin spun some ridiculous story or other, his free hand gesticulating wildly in the air, Suzy smiled adoringly up at him, briefly releasing his hand to pick a twig out of his hair (they'd walked under several of the low-hanging trees ringing the plaza) before clasping it once more.

Dan's attention slid from the pair's matching black nail polish to Arin's outfit, all oversized flannel and distressed jeans and clunky combat boots. It wasn't a particularly feminine outfit, but something about the way Arin filled it out, about the practical streaks of black framing his upper eyelids and the curling ends of his hair, made Dan feel just as shivery and unbalanced as he did every other time he looked at Arin for too long these days.

"...What do _you_ think, Dan?"

"Whuh?" Dan darted his gaze away from Arin and over to Barry, who was evidently waiting for him to speak. Barry raised an eyebrow at him. "About the Star Wars continuation, dude. We've been talking about it for like, seven minutes."

"No, yeah, I was listening!"

"You've been kinda out of it all night. Are you coming down with something?"

"He looks stoned," Arin chimed in unhelpfully. Barry scoffed, automatically dismissing the notion.

"I'm _not_ st--I'm just a little distracted, okay?"

"Are you dealing with something personal?" Suzy asked, concern written all over her pretty face. "You can talk to us, Dan." Dan balled his hands into fists, frustration running through him like a current. "Could you guys please stop? I'm tired, and I wanna go home and sleep, and that's it." By this point, they'd reached the car, so Arin let go of Suzy's hand and brushed past Dan to unlock the door. Dan had automatically stilled as Arin neared, his stomach swooping for no justifiable reason. Arin was, of course, completely oblivious, his back to Dan as he swung the door open and said, "Does anybody else feel like driving? I'm kind of exhausted myself."

As Barry reached out his hand for the keys, Dan became aware that Suzy was giving him this sort of narrow-eyed look of assessment, like she could see right through him. He raked a hand through his hair nervously and let his curls fall into his eyes, dropping his gaze to the ground as he climbed into the backseat.

 _I have to start being more careful_ , Dan thought to himself. He didn't want to give Suzy or anybody else the wrong idea, after all.

* * *

Much to Dan's chagrin, Arin eventually began to notice that something was up. And how could he not, when Dan practically leaped away from his touch; made up excuses not to spend time alone with Arin outside Grump sessions and the occasional Starbomb meetup; physically restrained himself from texting Arin every other stupid thought that popped into his head, like he used to. Dan could tell that he was being ridiculous, shutting Arin out without warning, but he didn't know what else to do. Because every time Arin gave him an affectionate nudge or laughed way too loudly at whatever awful joke he'd just uttered, something warm and molasses-thick would spread outwards from the center of his chest to the tips of his fingers. Sometimes, just catching sight of Arin's smile triggered that same sensation, made it so that he was worried it would swallow him whole.

How the fuck was he supposed to explain all that to Arin without making a complete ass out of himself? He didn't even consider the idea, opting to use juvenile avoidance tactics instead. Dan kept at it for roughly two weeks before Arin brought up the issue through text one night.

_u there?_

**_Yeah_** , Dan instinctively fired off.

_just wanted to ask: r u angry at me for something? bc if u are, we should rly talk about it_

Dan rubbed a hand over his forehead, blowing out a sigh.

 ** _You didn't do anything wrong_**  

 _then what's up? have u been going thru smth and I've been too much of a blockhead to notice?_  

 _ **Don't worry about me**_  

 _oh come on dont give me that dude_  

 _ **Arin I swear, if something was seriously wrong I'd tell you**_  

_ok. I hope whatever it is works itself out bc bro, I miss the velvet touch of ur hands_

Dan smiled wryly despite himself.

**_No homo?_ **

_sure lol_

* * *

_God, what if we just fucked one day?_

Dan didn't know what had possessed him to spout off like he did at today's Grump session, but naturally, he played it all off as a ridiculous joke, and Arin went right along with him. Dan had filed away the color that rose to Arin's cheeks, the heightened pitch of his voice, for future reference. The thought that his words--lighthearted or not--had gotten under Arin's skin made him feel oddly powerful, like he was beating Arin at his own game. Whatever the fuck that game might be.

Dan's phone vibrated in his pocket, then, derailing his train of thought. He fished it out, seeing that he'd gotten a text from Arin.

 _good to know ur apparently feeling better this week_  

**_What are you talking about?_ **

_you rly nailed it with the jokes today man. that was...a lot_  

 ** _A lot of what?_**  

 _just a lot._  

 ** _Thanks for the clarification, buddy_**  

_any time._

Arin followed this up with seven thumbs-up emojis in a row, and his typical smiling poop emoji for good measure. Dan rolled his eyes. He still hadn't figured out how to enable emojis on his phone (and Arin refused to let Barry show him how), but if he could, he'd send Arin one poop emoji for every day of the year. The last time Dan had pulled an obnoxious stunt like that, he'd texted Arin all the lyrics to each song off the album I-Empire every morning for fourteen days in a row. It would've been pretty lame as far as pranks went, if it weren't for Arin's vehement hatred of Angels & Airwaves. He'd gotten at least three of their songs stuck in his head for a week as a result of Dan's condensed barrage of texts, and had given Dan a hostile glare every time he'd caught himself absently humming _Call to Arms_ or _Everything's Magic_ , to Dan's obvious delight. Dan glanced back at his phone, which had vibrated again, recapturing his attention.

 _u fall asleep or something? old coot_  

 ** _Eat my ass, Arin_**  

_I mean, if ur offering_

Dan instinctively ignored that.

_**I was just busy thinking...about a blue black shade of love, sent from above** _

Arin's response was instantaneous.

 _dont u fucking dare_  

 ** _Why are you mad? I'm only trying to tell you that my hands are tied, two worlds alone, and this I know_**  

 _ur a bastard_  

 ** _your breath's like wine, and just like clouds, my skin crawls. It's so divine, the sky it glows with fields of light_**  

_you done gettin your jollies, funny man?_

Dan typed the next line of the song without thinking, hit 'send' with one of his giant thumbs and racked his brain to try to remember the rest of the words. It was only then that he realized he might have chosen the wrong AVA song to push Arin's buttons with. The text he'd just sent, **_Did you know that I love you?_**  , glowed mockingly up at him from his screen, and the words to the song's chorus tumbled about in his brain, unsettling.  _Come and lay with me. I love you. And on this day, I love you. You make me feel alive, and I'll love you until the end of time_. Dan's chest began to feel sort of tight as he sat there waiting for Arin to respond, his breaths quickening almost imperceptibly. There was absolutely no logical reason for him to be feeling nervous right now, but Arin wasn't texting him anything back and it was putting him on edge.

 _I've got a lot to say, if you will let me. It's always hard, when you're around me. But here right now, there's interest in your eyes, so hear me out, and hear this the first time_. The nape of Dan's neck prickled uncomfortably. He hoped Tom DeLonge tripped on his own stupid Eco-friendly sneakers and flew into the sun. Everyone knew he'd given all he had to offer by the time Blink-182's _Take Off Your Pants and Jacket_ came out, anyway. Dan had just decided to text Arin some kind of follow-up joke or an excuse involving how late it was--hell, maybe even a quick apology; anything to bridge the stifling gap in the conversation, when Arin finally texted back, nearly making Dan drop his phone.

_hey do u think the words "cooter" and "coot" are like derivatives of the same thing? can u imagine some gap toothed hick talking about sticking his fingers up a tight coot?_

Dan didn't know whether he wanted sigh with frustration or gratitude.

 ** _I think you're a fucking idiot_**  

 _that's no way to talk to the brains of this operation_  

 ** _You're a gentleman and a scholar._**  

_dont patronize me with Salinger!!! that technique only works with obscure lit!!_

Dan smiled, automatically crafting three different goading replies he could come back with. As usual, he ended up spending entirely too much time texting Arin, and crawled into bed a good hour and a half after he should have. Dan's last coherent thought as he succumbed to sleep was that he was immensely relieved to have gotten over the roadblock that had been keeping him from being his normal self around his best friend.

* * *

"Get your own blanket, Arin. I'm frail and elderly and I need every last inch of warmth this wool can provide." It was a slow work day, and the Grump Space was freezing cold because the heaters had gone kaput just in time for mid-November to roll around. Dan and Arin were struggling through one of their last sets of Mario Maker episodes, pressed against each other for that extra little bit of body heat. Arin scoffed at Dan. "Oh, _now_ you're okay with playing the age card? You stinkin' hypocrite." Dan didn't refute that, stubbornly yanking the edge of his blanket out of Arin's grasp and tucking it more firmly around himself. Arin made a petulant whining noise. "Are you just gonna sit by and watch your co-host freeze to death? I'd expect this from Ross, but not from Dan Avidan, BFF extraordinaire, gentlest of souls, friend to all living creatures--"

"You speak facts, but I'm still not sharing my blanket. I knitted it with my own two hands." Arin spluttered in outrage. "Suzy gave this to you for your thirty-fourth birthday!" Dan hid his smile in a fold of warm wool. "Oops. I thought you forgot."

"You know what, Dan? Fuck you and your blanket. I've got a built-in emergency radiator."

"If you're talking about your unlimited reserves of gas, please give me a running start so I can escape this room with my lungs intact." Arin tried and failed to maintain his frown, breathing a laugh and shoving at Dan's shoulder. "Next time on Game Grumps," he said into the mic, "Dan's getting a super in-depth lesson about sharing and caring."

"And maybe Arin'll finally realize that he's being completely _overbearing_. At me, he is now _glaring_. This fucking game has me _despairing_. I think that P-block was just a _red herring_." Arin shook his head, smiling. "Jesus, you're annoying today."

"I'm full of caffeine and charm," Dan said, adjusting his beanie and watching as Arin left the couch to shut off the capture and scoop their timestamp sheet off the floor. He quickly returned to Dan's side, leaning into him and grabbing his pen from the table as soon as he'd switched off the microphones. "Let's call it a day, alright?" He said, scrawling their end time onto the sheet. "I'm tired, and my balls are practically frostbitten right now."

"That'd be a sight to see. You'd be like one of those monkeys with the bright blue scrotums. Google that if you haven't already."

"Who do you think you're talking to, Dan? I have, like, a PhD in weird animal genitals."

" _There's_ a nice out-of-context sentence." Arin rubbed a hand over his face, laughing. He really did seem worn out, prominent bags under his eyes speaking to how busy he'd been keeping himself lately. Dan unwrapped his blanket and tossed half of it over Arin, scooting even closer to him so that they could share it properly. Arin turned his head to give him a questioning look. "Sudden change of heart?"

"I was just dicking around. Besides, you look pitiful."

"Thanks," Arin said, sarcasm dripping off the word. Dan sighed contentedly in lieu of an answer. Arin's body heat was warming him up more effectively than the blanket ever could. He stared mindlessly at the pause screen still illuminated on the TV, then peeked at Arin out of his periphery. He was looking scruffier than usual today, hair kind of dull and face free of makeup, dressed in old sweatpants and a nondescript long-sleeved shirt. His lips were visibly chapped from the cold, and his facial hair desperately needed a trim.

Dan untangled one of his arms from the depths of the blanket and looped it across Arin's shoulders. "You doing okay?" Arin tipped his head, letting his hair fall into his eyes. "I'm peachy. Why do you ask?" Dan stroked his thumb over Arin's arm absent-mindedly. "No reason, really. Just checking up on you." Arin smiled dryly at that. "You should worry about your own problems, Mom."

"Nah. You're more important to me."

Arin's smile went a bit off-kilter, confusion taking root on his face as Dan used his other hand to tuck a wayward lock of Arin's hair behind his ear. There was this red-hot intention swelling in Dan's chest, folding itself over his heart. "Hey," he said, his voice coming out hoarser than he would like. "Would it be okay if, um, I wanted to...kiss you?"

Arin wasn't moving a muscle, his mouth having dropped open in shock. Dan knew he'd freak the fuck out if he thought too hard about the implications of what he'd just said, so he focused his energy on breathing evenly, in and out like he was trying to lull himself to sleep after a night of insomnia. He almost missed it when Arin uttered "Yeah," in a half-whisper, his voice cracking. Dan's eyes caught Arin's, his mind beginning to work itself into a frenzy.

"Yeah, what?" He had to be 110% sure he wasn't misreading the situation. Arin bit back a groan, broke their eye contact. " _Yeah_ , you can kiss me right now, you dumbass. Is this gonna turn into an interrogation, or--" Dan effectively cut him off by cupping Arin's face between his hands and pressing their mouths together.

His heart was beating like crazy, and he was possibly gonna have a crisis about this within the next ten minutes, but on top of feeling terrified, Dan was absolutely _elated_ , like all he'd wanted for the past three years was to kiss Arin and he was only now realizing it. That probably wasn't too far off from the truth, all things considered.

Arin slid his tongue into Dan's mouth, making him flush right down to his toes. _Holy fuck_. He shifted in his seat so that he was halfway in Arin's lap, clutching tightly at the wide collar of his shirt and probably twisting it out of shape. Arin's beard scraped against Dan's own stubble, and once upon a time, that might have made him recoil, but now he just relished it for the novel sensation it was. Their mouths moved together, wet and hot and ensnaring Dan's brain to the point that he stopped thinking entirely and lost himself to the act of kissing Arin.

When they broke apart to breathe, panting and staring at each other with twin dazed expressions, Arin said, "I guess this means I owe Suzy fifty bucks." Dan blinked glassily, his eyes still riveted to Arin's lips. "What?"

"I'll tell you later." 

**Author's Note:**

> My first GG fic! I hope I characterized everyone okay. Come find me on tumblr @regretroids or @idiotbrothers if you want. :)
> 
> PS: I have nothing against Tom DeLonge. I actually used to love Angels & Airwaves, believe it or not.


End file.
